The other day, I had my first real urge to bake something since Spring.  Summer was H.O.T. this year and my kitchen is particularly stuffy even though there is a window and I just didn’t want to hang out in a hot kitchen to realize after all that, my cookies spread too much because of the heat.  Then, the temperature dropped, and it began to feel like fall and baking seemed like an attractive option once again.

When I do bake, I tend to make a lot of cookies.   I also love quick breads, but those don’t get eaten as fast, so I went almond butter cookies, similar to peanut butter cookies.  My roommate has a peanut allergy.  I’m used to peanut allergies.  My sister, Lily, also has one, so until I was 18 I didn’t eat nuts.  In college, I went crazy for nuts.  I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Reese’s and straight up spoonfuls of peanut butter.  While the novelty wore off after a while, peanuts and nuts re-entered my diet as a staple.  My roommate, Erin is only allergic to peanuts, so luckily for her and us we can all still enjoy a variety of nuts.  Hence, the almond butter cookies.  According to Alex, these cookies were my best textured to date.  Enjoy.

Almond Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cup almond butter (I used raw creamy unsalted, but you can use your preferred type)

1 cup sugar

3 TBS maple syrup

2 TBS white rice flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line two greased baking sheets with waxed paper and grease the waxed paper as well.  The grease on the pans helps the paper stick.  Combine the wet ingredients first (almond butter, egg, maple syrup, and sugar) and then add the flour and baking powder.  I did this in a food processor, but you can do it by hand, it just takes some elbow grease with the dense almond butter.  The dough should be sticky, but firm and maleable.  If its too wet, add more flour.  Roll tablespoon sized chunks into balls and then roll them in a plate of sugar.  Place the balls onto the baking sheet and press a greased fork into the ball twice to make a checkered pattern and flatten them slightly.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Check on the cookies at 10 minutes to make sure they aren’t burning, because some ovens are different.

These cookies come out flat and crisp, if you want cakier, heartier cookies here is a modification:

1 cup almond butter

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup gluten-free oats

4 TBS flour

2 tps baking powder

1 egg

3 TBS maple syrup.

The only difference in this recipe is that you want to wait until everything is combined before you add the oats.  I also used a food processor for this and it ended up chopping the oats into smaller pieces, making the end result less obviously oat-y.  I also baked these at 350 for 12 minutes and they came out cakier and denser.

Last weekend I drove to Rochester, NY to seek out weddings venues.  We found a venue, and almost found a date (keep your fingers crossed for August 6!).  I also found an incredibly gluten-free friendly city.

My fiancée proudly hails from Rochester and even started a Facebook group about it (when it was cool to do that sort of thing).  I, on the other hand, am slowly coming around to it’s smaller size and smaller variety of restaurants.  So it surprised me  when I found gluten-free items at three shops/restaurants.  I mean, I didn’t think Rochester was that hip on dietary trends.

The first pleasant surprise occurred at Breathe, a super hip yoga studio/smoothie bar/purveyor of expensive apparel. Alex and I dropped in to get one of their popular smoothies to hold us over until dinner when I found that they sold gluten-free cookies.  They weren’t freshly baked, but come from a Washington company called Wow Baking Company.  I pretty much jump on anything gluten-free sold at cafes because I can so rarely enjoy a cookie or cupcake or scone with my tea.  We got the lemon cookie and boy was it yummy.  The lemon flavor burst throughout each bite and the texture was cake-like.  Not a trace of icky bitter xanthan gum taste here!

Gluten-free encounter number 2 happened while getting a chai tea latte at a Spin Cafe on Park Avenue.  They had on display a number of fabulous homemade looking cakes.  I was drooling at them and convinced Alex to get a slice.  While he thought about it, I discovered that they sold homemade gluten-free almond scones as wells as gluten-free biscotti.  I was going to get the biscotti when Alex stumbled across a gluten-free cake on display!  It was most likely a flourless chocolate cake, but that wasn’t specified.  We obviously ordered that and devoured it.  Alex said it was the closest I’d come to eating real Sacher Torte (his favorite Austrian dessert).  I’d say he liked it.  I enjoyed it as well, but I don’t think it was any better than my sister’s or dad’s flourless chocolate cakes.

Last, but not least was the most epic gluten-free surprise of the trip.  We went out to dinner with our local Rochester buddies and asked them to choose the spot.  They recommended The Owl House, since it was new and was located across the street from their place.  At first glance, the menu seemed to contain only sandwiches- nothing I could eat, but a more closer look proved absolutely the opposite.  The Owl House has a gluten-free menu available where they serve their sandwiches with gluten-free bread.  This place rocked.  Appetizers were $2-5, entrees were $7-10 and drinks were $5-10.  Talk about cheap.  We ordered the smoked trout hummus on gluten-free pita (among others), which was the group favorite, and I had the chicken salad sandwich.  As far as I could tell this GF bread was not Udi’s, but tasted fresh, and wasn’t toasted.  I failed to ask them where they got it (or if they made it), but boy was it good.  Soft, not crumbly, and light- pretty much all you want in a good slice of GF bread.  If you are every in Rochester, you must go here.  Not only is the food cheap and good, but the restaurant is actually a converted house.

My good gluten-free experience in Rochester is confirming my suspicions that the gluten-free food trend is spreading far beyond major cities and hippie towns.  I’m off to Jackson Hole next week, where I’m sure I’ll have plenty to report on.

Fresh Gluten Free Bread!

Heidi’s bread is delivered FRESH every Tuesday and Saturday to the midtown Westerly Market on 54th and 8th. 

I love banana bread.  My love for it stems from a particular banana chocolate chip muffin at a farmstand near my uncle’s house in Bridgehampton.  Sadly, the farmstand doesn’t exist anymore, but I have since learned to make my own in loaf form.  Another thing I love about banana bread is that it isn’t produced from a planned endeavor.  It happens when you didn’t eat your bananas fast enough and they look like this:

Last week, the timing was perfect.  I came home early from work because of snowpocalypse 3.0 to these over-ripe bananas and a fun snow day project.

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Since going to BabyCakes every week for your baked good fix would be impractical and expensive, learning to bake becomes a necessity.  I was never the baker in the family; that is Madeline, my younger sister, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of this.

I got this recipe from a cookbook called Gluten-Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly; it was a present from my friend Caitlyn, who helped me with these cookies.  In the book the recipe is called “Tollhouse Cookies”, and it surprises me that there isn’t some copyright law infringement there.  I’ve made some alterations to get rid of the xanthan gum aftertaste that I find in most GF cookies.

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